Ring Shout has a paperback edition–which came out from Tor Nightfire back in October. Guess I shoulda maybe said something about it. Never too late! 

Ring Shout, which first came out in 2020, had a paperback edition released back in October 2025. To be clear, this is not a new Ring Shout. There’s no new plot. This is not part two of Ring Shout. It’s the same story. It’s just in paperback now. The only new bit beyond that, is a foreword by yours truly–reflecting on the origin of the story and its reception over the past few years. I did get to go on a mini book tour during the Fall. And if I saw you out there, thanks for pulling up! Anyway, though this is hella late, I decided it was blog post worthy. And I even decided to answer a few questions, some of which I get asked a lot. 

So, here we go!

How did you come up with Ring Shout?

I’ve told the origin story of this book before…including in numerous interviews since it was first released. But I’ll go over some parts again.

Ring Shout had been rattling around in my head for a minute. I first came across the idea of the Klan as monsters from reading the WPA Ex-Slave narratives collected in the 1920s and 1930s. It was those ex-slaves who came up with the idea of the Klan as monsters. I first read about it way back in 2004. I knew I wanted to do something with it. But had no idea what or how I would go about it. That’s how writing is sometimes. I had an interesting prompt, but no story, no plot, no characters, no nothing. So, I stashed it away into my file of “things that sparked my interested and who knows if I’ll ever revisit them” and went ahead and lived the rest of my life.

Then, I want to say almost a full decade later, around 2014 and 2015, the idea of Ring Shout started rattling around in my head. And I mean just in my head. Hadn’t written anything. Not even notes or character sketches. Still didn’t have anything resembling a plot. But I felt it was time to tell a story using the notes I’d collected ten years earlier. I could feel like it was time. Why? Who knows. Maybe I had read enough and written enough to have the confidence to make the plunge. Maybe it was reading some other authors like Victor LaValle or Cassandra Khaw, showing me I could do this. Maybe it was driving through the creepy mountains of Pennsylvania while doing a yearlong dissertation fellowship. Who can say. But every once in a while, I’d pull up a song (did I mention music is integral to this story?). This one song. And I’d listen to it over and over on long drives, and dream up what tales might be.

That song is by the MacIntosh County Shouters, a group of traditional Gullah musical performers from the community of Briar Patch in Bolden, Georgia who preserve the shout–including performances worldwide. had come found stories about the “ring shout” tradition all those years ago in 2004 the WPA narratives. Even before that, I had seen versions of the shout performed live at Black cultural events and the like, back in Houston and elsewhere. And I’d read up a bit on it. The shout with its hand clapping, call-and-response, and counterclockwise movement was always amazing to me, as were the many stories behind its many meanings. One of  my memories of being fascinated by the shout, was its depiction in the film adaptation of Beloved (1998). Sure, that film wasn’t the best of adaptations–sometimes its hard to transfer such a rich literary story to the screen. But its depiction of shout was something that has stayed with me over the years:

Somehow, in my brain, I began associating the shout tradition with the larger story I wanted to tell about Ku Klux Klan monsters. I can’t even say why. It just fit somehow, in its own way. And throughout my daydreams and brainstorming, it was a constant soundtrack to the story. 

More time passed. Wrote other stuff. Published other stuff. But through all that, I still held onto that story idea. Was there when I watched Beyonce’s “Formation” video. It was there when I visited my sister in Georgia, or went back to my old hometown of Houston. Was there when I re-read Toni Morrison’s Beloved or while I was watching the movie adaptation of The Color Purple. Or when I turned up some old UGK. Couldn’t get rid of the story. Like it was demanding to be written. Sometime in late 2016, I finally sat down and jotted some notes down in my Big Book of Rhymes–which was a small black notebook, and eventually just became the Notes feature on my Iphone. It was just the barest of bones of a story. Then I put it away and, again, went on living my life, writing and publishing other stuff. But it never strayed far my mind. Just glancing at my social media posts from back then shows me just how much: 

Then in April of 2019 I brokered a book contract with Tor Publishing (now Reactor). My first big writing contract! It was at first just going to be for a full length novel about this stuff. But my editor Diana Pho wondered, given my luck with previous novellas, if I had ideas for anything new? Funny you should ask, I answered…and pitched what had been rattling in my head for so long. It was still barely formed. I did know the title–Ring Shout. I think I said something to the effect of: “southern gothic meets fantasy. there’s music. a movie. things get weird.” Well actually, I said more than that. You get a chance to pitch, you better sound like you got a firm grasp of an idea and where you’re going, even if you’re putting it together on the fly. Whatever I said must have worked because Diana was on board! Before you can say Bob’s your uncle, I had a contract for a story… that I was still dreaming up.

No rushing the muse though. She’ll work how she wanna, even if it’s right up to the deadline. The story was due in September. I finally sat down to work on it in August. By that time though, I had an outline sketched out. And characters. And a plot. The story I was intending was wild. It was experimental. It seemed improbable. Whole time I’m writing I’m like, “can I do this?” Still, kept at it–mostly between 10pm and midnight because it was the start of an academic semester. I was busy AND I needed it off my plate. Took about three or four weeks, and when I was done I was relieved. Also thought, this is some mess. Sent it to Diana, wondering if her response would be, “errrr…what’s this homie?” I was fully prepared for a gentle, “I see what you’re going for here but let’s see if we can smooth this out and make it make sense.” 

That didn’t happen though. When Diana got back to me she was elated. She loved it. Whuuut? Had suggestions on enhancing it. Whuuuut? Even said the 4k words I’d preemptively chopped off in my self-editing jitters, needed to go BACK in. Ran outta whuuuuuts? Anyway, some snipping and cutting and shifting things into place later… yadda yadda yadda… here we are.

I heard there was going to be a Ring Shout movie! 

Yeah, me too.

Back in 2020, during the summer of the George Floyd Protests, Ring Shout was making a buzz among TV and movie folk. The book wasn’t even out yet! But they had gotten hold of an ARC, and believed it was doing all the right things to meet the moment. Before you know it, I was speaking to lots of different people from some pretty big studious. It was kind of unbelievable and overwhelming as my agent set me up on calls with producers and directors I recognized because they made some of my favorite films. 

Then, that December 2020, just after we thought we’d done a good job saving democracy (narrator’s note from six years later–democracy was sadly not secured), Deadline announced the news: 

Wow! I know right? This was a BIG BIG deal! Even got to talk to Kasi Lemmons and Kiki Layne. It was like a dream…. I used to read WordUp! magazine! 

But don’t too excited.

Alas, the film world is fickle. Properties are bought and optioned all the time. Few of them make it beyond that. Ring Shout did…for a while, all the way to a writer’s room at a very big and famous streaming platform. Then, it hit a brick wall. And it went to “this is happening!” to… “oh, this isn’t happening after all.” In the middle of all this, there was a major Writer’s Guild strike, and the SAG-AFTRA strike. These were all legitimate labor disputes. I supported them fully. But, the studios decided that the world that came after all of that, was not one where Ring Shout was possible any longer. The big streaming and television production services scaled back dramatically after the strikes. There was also a clear shift in priorities away from diversity (which was championed in 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd Protests) and towards programming that did not deal with–what’s the word I was told repeatedly–yes, “trauma.” And that’s that. 

Will there be the chance of a Ring Shout movie in the future? No idea. The movement away from diversity and themes of so-called “trauma” remain part of the media landscape. And with the continued consolidation of media under a few owners, with clear political agendas, the chances ain’t looking great. There’s a reason a powerhouse of a film like Sinners, hasn’t generated all the expected copycats from studios–who who are watching their bottom line, while towing a cautious line, in the current political atmosphere. 

At one point I was even asked if Ring Shout could still be made–but if I would be amenable to taking out the Klan, or references to racism. And I laughed and I laughed and I laughed! Because if you just want a story of mfkaz killing monsters, there’s 1001 properties to choose from in the mfkaz killing monsters variety. You ain’t gotta have mine. So, I have no idea if Ring Shout will ever get an adaptation. But I’d rather it stay on the page, than watered down into something it’s not. 

Stay tuned. 

Have you seen Sinners?

Of course I’ve seen Sinners. What? I been under a rock or something? One of the greatest movies of our age. Phenomenal. Amazing. I don’t have enough words. The cast. The energy. The cinematography. The music. Just genius all around. I mean, there’s a scene where the roof is QUITE LITERALLY ON FIRE! I’ve seen Sinners more times than is probably healthy. Will remain one of my favorite flicks ever. Hands down.

I’ve also had my fair share of folk comparing Sinners to Ring Shout.

When the first posters and trailers for Sinners came out, the questions started heading my way. Is this Ring Shout? No. Is this based on Ring Shout? No. Doesn’t your story have vampires too? Nope. But the questions kept coming, and there were even some interesting social media posts:

Once the movie actually arrived, the comparisons were everywhere. “If you like Sinners, read Ring Shout!” became a mantra. It was all over my Instagram. Got em’ on Bluesky. Dunno what’s happening on Twitter (X) because I left that hellscape. There were booklists and book club reads. It was kinda bananas. People who had never heard of Ring Shout, were suddenly hearing about it from a movie about vampires. 

This, of course, led to the inevitable questions. Did you see similarities between Sinners and Ring Shout? Yeah. I saw some. A few were very general. Some raised both my eyebrows, like a certain scene in the juke joint. Do you think Ryan Coogler ever read Ring Shout? I have no idea. Maybe he did. Maybe someone in his writer’s room did. Or, maybe it never crossed his path–and there are just some generalized themes that would naturally pop up in a film made in that time, in that space, about Black monster hunters.

In fact, Ryan Coogler optioned another work quite similar to Ring Shout, and Sinners, about Black monster hunters. It’s a graphic novel called Bitter Root. Co-created by Sanford Greene, Chuck Brown and David F. Walker, it’s about a set of Black monster hunters in Harlem, that centers around themes of hate. Bitter Root ran from Nov 2018 to August 202, and was published by Image comics. When Ring Shout came out in 2020, a few people compared it to Bitter Root and asked if I’d read the comic. I hadn’t even heard of it at the time. And, when I finally did read it, there were similarities–definitely. Uncannily.  But there were also clear differences.

Clearly, something was in the air from that 2015 to 2020 that sent all of our minds down somewhat similar but decidedly different paths. In the end, whatever those similarities, real or perceived, Sinners and Ring Shout are two different things. They stand on their own. And if some small bit of inspiration was lifted from my own work–directly or indirectly as such things go–I can’t be anything other than honored.

Besides, I’m deeply thankful to Sinners. The movie came out six months before the Ring Shout paperback edition. And the impact has been tremendous! It’s breathed new life into Ring Shout. Sales have…jumped! And the book is being discussed in ways I haven’t seen since 2020. So, THANK YOU Mr. Coogler! And if you ever want to make Ring Shout part of the larger Sinners universe, I am absolutely here for it! 

Will there be a part 2 to Ring Shout?

To quote the late Heath Ledger’s magnum opus as the Joker, “Do I really look like a guy with a plan?”

I got no idea. I won’t say I haven’t toyed with the idea. Maybe even a prequel–showing how Maryse, Sadie, and Chef got together, or their lives before. But, for now, they’re just fanciful thoughts. Of course, that’s how Ring Shout got started in the first place. Didn’t answer the question huh? I know. 

If you do want more from the Ring Shout universe, there is a standalone story. It’s called “Night Doctors,” and is an origin story of sorts for our enigmatic friend Dr. Antoine Bisset–and how he met the terrifying Night Doctors. It was first published in 2018 in the indie weird spec fic magazine Eyedolon, which is sadly now defunct. It was reprinted by Nightmare Magazine in Nov 2020. Of interest (if you peeped the dates), “Night Doctors” actually predates Ring Shout–by two years. And the inclusion of those characters into the novella, was essentially a comic book type crossover. 

I wrote a whole long blog post on the “Night Doctors” story, which you can read here. 

Whether Ring Shout will get a sequel–or prequel–remains up in the air. But, I am playing with the idea of writing several other… weird bits of horror-fantasy… in which themes, places, even whole characters, from Ring Shout might make small cameos. A Ring Shout… multiverse…maybe? 

Stay tuned.

Taking us back to the beginning, now Ring Shout has a paperback edition. Lighter to carry and with a foreword by myself, talking about inspirations for the novel and my reactions to its reception. 

Ring Shout has been fortunate since its publication. It won the Nebula and Locus in
awards in 2021 and was nominated for the Hugo, the World Fantasy Award, the Ignyte Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the AAMBC Literary Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Goodreads Choice Award, and a 2020 SIBA finalist. The novella has been an Editor’s Choice pick in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Booklist, NPR, Library Journal, Book Riot, LitReactor, Bustle, and more. 

Ring Shout has been reprinted in multiple languages and reached a global audience. I’ve traveled to Spain, France, and elsewhere to talk to readers about the novella, and been invited to do interviews in Brazil and other locales. There are multiple editions now with brand new covers, each more terrifying than the last! Something about Ring Shout resonated with readers–in ways I never expected. And I couldn’t be more thankful. My gratitude to all of you for making this book shine.

“Adam in the garden…” 

A bit of what many very nice people (and places) have said nicely about Ring Shout:

“P. Djèlí Clark couldn’t write a bad book if he tried. Ring Shout is fantastically fun even as its core is as serious as can be.” —Victor LaValle

“Ring Shout is a wild ride into America’s nightmarish history, a fantastical cross between Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” —Annalee Newitz

“Slyly told and laced with dark humor, this haunting tale pulled me into a richly realized world I didn’t want to leave.” —Rivers Solomon

“Ring Shout is a fearless punch to the heart and head!” —Jonathan Maberry

“A sublime work of revolutionary body horror.” —Sarah Gailey

“Brutal and hopeful, farcical and factual, Ring Shout is a book that speaks to the ridiculous and beastly nature of racism in a story that is difficult to put down.” —Justina Ireland

“From the start, Ring Shout explodes into vivid color with a voice that’s at once joyous and harrowing.” —Bethany C. Morrow

“A thrilling and provocative inferno of a story. One of the most powerful and propulsive pieces of speculative fiction I’ve read in years.” —Tochi Onyebuchi

 “Feverishly inventive period adventure…. At once rousing, boisterous, and clever.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

 “Readers will be both captivated and entertained by this fast-paced alternate history, which doubles as a meditation on the all-consuming power of hate and violence.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

 “This is a story of Black female power, drawn from both the old and new worlds, a tale that honors the Black American experience in all its complexity, and yet also delivers in its Lovecraftian delight.” —Library Journal, starred review

 “Clark’s latest is set in a visceral world, steeped in historical detail and full of engaging characters, that asks the question, ‘Who is to blame for the hate that hate made?‘.” —Booklist, starred review